Construction company 5 Star Builders Limited was ordered to pay £100,000 at Guildford crown court in Surrey, which heard how it put profit before the safety of workers and ignored previous prohibition and improvement notices.

Director Joel Koppel has now been banned from running firms for six years after 5 Star Builders went into liquidation without paying the fine.

Business minister Kelly Tolhurst said a “minority of directors are recklessly profiting from dissolved companies”.

The proposed new rules will also affect directors who dissolve companies to avoid paying staff pensions.

The only trouble is that there's no time frame for their introduction. Legislation is needed to bring in this new power and details of when that might happen have yet to be announced.